Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Mark Tufo takes over with Part One of 'Through My Baby's Eyes'.

I am excited, honored, and very proud to host Part One of a short story written by the ever awesome Mark Tufo for the Winter of Zombie 2014 blog tour . Without further ado, Ladies and Gentlemen, I give to you the Czar of Zombies, Mark Tufo.

Through My Baby’s Eyes

Mark Tufo

Part One

My
name is Mercury Jones. One would guess that I was a professional athlete and I
had given myself a flashy nickname. That wasn’t the case. Nor was I slippery in
any way. My name was given to me by my asinine father, who stayed around just
long enough to saddle me with that moniker. The ink wasn’t dry on the birth
certificate before he bolted for parts unknown. Now the question you may have
is why. Why did he name me this? Because his friends which were marginally less
stupid than him bet 27 dollars and three lines of coke that he wouldn’t take a
drink from a thermometer. He did. The comedy of errors didn’t stop there, he
drank, snorted, got up and meandered to his then girlfriend’s, my future
mother’s house. She snuck him in and before he almost died from heavy-metal
poisoning they had a booty call, where I was conceived, lucky me.

Not
two seconds after the deed was completed, my father John Jones, his eyes
crossed, his skin turned the color of a fire engine then he fell off the bed
onto the floor where he began having convulsions. My mother the naive
brain-child that she was before heroin became her substance of choice thought
he was being funny and that somehow having sex with her had blown his mind.
That was of course until my grandfather, retired US Army, Gunnery Sergeant Matt
McCoy ran into the room to discover what all the noise was about.

“What
the hell is going on Deirdre?” His daughter had her nightgown hiked up past her
thighs and the little scumbag he couldn’t stand John, was completely naked.
“Did you poison him?”

“Poison?
No daddy.” Deirdre quickly pulled her gown down.

“Betsy
call 911!” Matt shouted out the door. “John is here!”

“Did
you kill him?” His wife shouted back in question.

“I
would have, but he seems to have done the hard part himself. Help me turn him
on his side Deirdre.”

Deirdre
didn’t move. She was looking down on John who was turning all manner of colors.
Her fear now was that she may have caught whatever was ailing her boyfriend.

“Now
Deirdre! This is the time you chose not to touch him? Might as well, this will
be the last time in a very long time you are going to be able to see him.
That’s provided he makes it through the night.”

The
ambulance was in the affluent neighborhood in less than four minutes. “Where’s
the patient?” One of the EMT’s asked as he came in through the front door. “Any
idea what’s wrong with him?” He asked when Matt escorted the two of them
upstairs.

“Beats
me, knowing this jack-hole he probably snorted cyanide.”

The
two EMT’s looked at each other.

“Listen
I don’t know what’s wrong with him, he snuck in here, diddled around with my
daughter then fell off the bed and there he lies.”

“Daddy!”
Deirdre cried embarrassed.

“Miss
do you have any information that could help?”

She
shook her head. “He came from his friend’s house, that’s all I know. Is he
contagious?”

“Yeah
we wouldn’t want you to catch stupid.” Her dad chimed in.

“Tough
to say what is going on without a toxicology report, my guess is poisoning of
some kind.” The first EMT said as he took a quick set of vitals. “Harold let’s
get an IV in him and we need to transport right away.”

***

My
father was in the hospital for three days, it appeared that the cocaine may
have actually saved his life. Sped up his system to remove the mercury or
something like that. Who would have thought cocaine could have medicinal
properties? My grandfather had my mother in a virtual lockdown, he barely gave
her enough alone time to take a shower. How she’d managed to get a hold of a
pregnancy test was a mystery that she had yet to reveal, and with her now
drug-addled mind, chances were she didn’t remember anyway. She somehow got the
test yet didn’t have the foresight to dispose of it properly, left it on the
vanity. The blue ‘plus’ sign must have given her such a shock she had not been
able to think clearly.

Good
old Matt was a through and through Catholic and could not see his way for his daughter
to terminate the pregnancy, so he did the next best thing and dragged John’s
ass to the altar. A shotgun was not visible but it was definitely implied. Yeah
all good marriages start off when a 17 year old pregnant girl is forced to
marry her 17 year old jobless boyfriend. As soon as I was born, like I said
‘dad’ split, mom was right behind him. Not physically, he didn’t leave a
forwarding address, no she found heroin and so enjoyed chasing the dragon, most
times she didn’t come home for days. Luckily for me she had moved back in with
my grandparents or I would have been another casualty.

I
was two, when Matt and Betty had had enough and kicked their daughter to the
curb. They raised me as best they could, which given the circumstances was
pretty good. I have no complaints, my childhood was decent, I didn’t grow up
wanting to shoot up my high school or light cats on fire. I just wanted to
marry my girlfriend Rachel, who just happened to be my best friend and raise a
family the way it was supposed to be done. We waited until we both finished
college before we got hitched. Then waited until we had our careers going
before we decided on having a child. I won’t lie, I was scared. Scared I might
have more of my father or mother in me than I dared to acknowledge. Would I
flee upon his arrival? Or would I drown out reality in a haze of drugs?

Neither,
the day my son was born, I fell deeply in love with him. I could not imagine
any existence that did not involve him. He was three weeks old when things
began to round a dark corner and travel off into the abyss of insanity.

The stench of frozen rotted meat is in the air! Welcome to
the Winter of Zombie Blog Tour 2014, with 10 of the best zombie authors
spreading the disease in the month of November.

Stop by the event page on Facebook so you don't miss an
interview, guest post or teaser… and pick up some great swag as well! Giveaways
galore from most of the authors as well as interaction with them!
#WinterZombie2014

At first I thought the narrator was a female because of the name Mercury, that was until he said he just wanted to marry his girlfriend and have a family the way it should be. Was i the only one? Lol. I like how the narration eases into and builds up the storyline. By taking its time to build up with the back story and the fears and aspirations of the characters, you become invested and want to know what comes next. Especially with that suspenseful ending.